1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a foot controlled computer mouse for use independently or in conjunction with hand operated cursor and/or mouse click control devices for delivering control signals to a computer.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The operating systems of most modern day computers, including the software which runs these computers, is largely dependent on the use of a mouse for moving a pointer or cursor on the display and to activate specific areas and/or icons on the display. Operating systems such as WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS NT, WINDOWS XP and MAC OS require the user to use a hand operated mouse in order to perform numerous functions for operating the computer and software programs. Further, use of various programs to navigate on the Internet is highly dependent on the point and click operations of a computer mouse.
While the use of a hand operated computer mouse to operate commands and to perform various functions on a computer has been well accepted and is now a standard operating component, there are times when the use of a hand operated mouse is inconvenient. For instance, when completing a form or making entries on a spreadsheet, it is necessary to move the cursor (pointer) to each are on the form and then to click on the mouse in order to activate a specific area prior to making an alphanumeric entry using the keyboard. Performing this task requires the computer operator to constantly remove his/her hand from the keyboard in order to grasp the mouse and move the cursor to the next entry area. This constant hand movement between the keyboard and mouse reduces the efficiency of the computer operator and, sometimes, results in confusion if the operator loses his/her place on the display. In other instances, a typist using a word processing program may find it inconvenient and burdensome to constantly remove their hands from the keyboard in order to operate the mouse when entering menu commands needed to perform various functions of the word processing software.
In view of the problems and limitations associated with the use of a hand operated computer mouse, I have previously developed a foot controlled computer mouse which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,318, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference. The present invention improves upon my prior invention, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,318, by providing an optical sensor for detecting foot controlled movement of the top moveable portion of the footmouse device. Additionally, the present invention provides for an external RCA jack which allows for attachment of external clicking devices. In particular, the present invention provides for finger operated clicking devices to perform the left click and right click operations. The housing of the device of the present invention is circular in shape, providing greater freedom of movement, and can be connected to a host computer via USB 1.0, 2.0 and PS2.